Notes

Review of the Seasonal Worker visa accessible
Comparable countries such as Canada, the US, Australia and New Zealand all allow for ornamental roles to be filled by migrant seasonal labour (Chapter 1 considered the value of its inclusion on the UK scheme). In fact, looking internationally, other seasonal work schemes tend to be broader in terms of eligible occupations and industries than the UK. The final price of agricultural products is dependent on a range of factors including production, demand, imports, exports, and exchange rates. While labour availability is an important determinant of production, it does not affect the other factors. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) food inflation model estimates that with a 10% increase in domestic labour costs, the long run (3 year) increase in food prices would be 2.3%. If the shock was limited to workers on the SWV (and not the full domestic labour force) the magnitude of this impact would be much smaller.
Chapter 2: How the Seasonal Work Visa works

Agriculture is important for rural areas, especially in the rural uplands, accounting for around 15% of registered businesses and 8% of employment across all rural areas, which rises to 30% and 14% respectively in rural uplands areas. The SWS may have an impact on the agriculture sector’s automation transition, a process of replacing labour with technology seen as key to improving the sector’s productivity and competitiveness. In general, we believe that the availability of workers is likely a disincentive to automate, as suggested by the evidence provided by Calvin et al., (2022), Lewis (2011) and much of the theoretical literature. Guidance states that there should be “a clear employer transfer pathway” and transfers should not normally be refused. Workers are able to request a transfer from scheme operators, and employers are unable to deny this if it is granted. It is likely that in the future, the domestic production of fruits and vegetables will benefit the food security of the UK through helping to ensure the availability of safe and nutritious food.
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Table 1.7 shows, that whilst pay for ‘farm workers’ and‘horticultural trades’ is low when compared to the whole economy, it is relatively consistent with pay rates for competing occupations. This suggests pay would not be a deciding factor for individuals to pursue these occupations (as others are available at similar rates). Further, the reliance on migrant labour suggests that pay is not sufficiently high to attract British workers to these roles. It is important to note, the median wage data presented for Horticultural Trades and Farm workers is for the whole occupation not seasonal workers specifically, who may be paid at a different rate. This can be a welfare concern because the workers make calculations of their earnings based on the full length of their visa and having a shorter duration can have negative impacts. IOM told us that workers from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan made calculations about their potential earnings based on the assumption they would be employed for the full 6-month duration of their visas.

As discussed in Chapter 2, there is no English language requirement on this scheme although some scheme operators have their own rules around language (for example requiring Russian) to facilitate informed recruitment. The skills required to develop, install, operate, and maintain the next generation of automation technologies will likely be science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) based. On the other hand, some employers said that the limited scheme length actually increased productivity as workers were incentivised to earn as much as possible in the 6- month period. The MAC had previously commented on the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Scheme (SAWS) in May 2013. Whilst this may not be sufficiently appealing compensation to encourage domestic participation in seasonal work this is a significant incentive for migrant workers travelling from poorer countries.
Although employers must guarantee employment for the minimum number of hours and paid at the minimum rate, workers may still be dismissed for reasons including misconduct (for example fighting, possession of drugs) or poor performance. People in the UK on the SWV have access to free primary and emergency healthcare only in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Other (secondary) treatment must be paid for, and as such Defra require scheme operators to have arrangements in place to ensure Seasonal Workers have adequate health insurance, or equivalent coverage, for medical expenses while they are in the UK.
The graph below demonstrates how the value added to the economy by agriculture has changed over time, as a share of GDP. During the 1990s there was a fall in the role agriculture played in the economy as food imports rose. Contrastingly, since 2000 there has been a slight rise in the Gross Value Added (the value of output minus the value of intermediate consumption, GVA) of agriculture as a share of GDP (from 0.4% to 0.6%). Throughout Russian Translation Agency , the relative contribution of agriculture to the UK economy has been relatively low and therefore, in purely GDP terms, a reduction in the size of the agricultural sector would not significantly impact the UK economy. In terms of GVA, agriculture, forestry and fishing is the second smallest industry within the UK economy.
As set out in Chapter 2, users of the SWS are required to pay the NLW to migrant seasonal workers, currently£11.44. Introducing a policy similar to the AEWR where seasonal workers would have to be paid at least the “prevailing wage” (median wage for the occupation), would have raised the hourly minimum wage for seasonal workers by 8% for those employed in ‘Horticultural trades’ and 7% for ‘Farmworkers’ in 2023. Given the benefits of ensuring higher pay, it is concerning that SWS wages are comfortably below the UK averages, both for the main occupations on the scheme as noted, and for the likely work being undertaken (at the 4 digit SIC code level, see Table 3.3 below). Those requesting an increased visa length tended to specify 9 months as desirable in horticulture, although there was demand from mushroom growers for a specific scheme that could last up to 2 years.
The House of Lords report into the horticultural sector argues that this is a result of loss-leader pricing strategies in supermarkets which leads to poor grower returns within the horticultural sector. One could conclude from this that supermarkets should just charge more to improve growers’ margins and allow for the recruitment of domestic workers at higher wage rates; however, it is not as simple as that. UK producers compete with imports and, without further market intervention such as tariffs, an increase in the price of domestically produced food willlikely lead to consumers choosing imported food over ‘home-grown’. However, the occupational/industry-based comparison is not perfect, with these groupings including a variety of jobs beyond just seasonal work. At present, a direct comparison between the hourly wages paid for seasonal work to those on the SWV and to others undertaking this work in the UK not on the route is not possible, limiting our ability to understand if SWS workers are being underpaid for the same work. For workers on the SWS, while mean hourly pay data exists, we do not have access to median pay or ranges, nor any breakdowns by occupation or industry to understand pay differences for different types of work better.
Scheme operators could allay these concerns by providing more information to employers in advance. Other issues noted among employers were scheme operators not providing the number of workers they had requested, and unexpectedly receiving workers who did not have a full 6-month visa remaining. Similarly, employers said that a previous operator licence removal was sudden and that communication was lacking leading up to removal. Many were unsure of why it had happened or what to do without sponsors for their workers, and wanted clarification on employees’ and their businesses rights under UK labour law if licence removal occurs again. We share these concerns and suggest government should facilitate the rapid transfer of these contracts to another scheme operator.
Their “superior work ethic” is often noted as a key reason for farmers preference for foreign seasonal workers (Anderson and Ruhs, 2010; Scott, 2015) and there is anecdotal evidence of positive productivity spillovers. Scott (2015) quotes farmers who noticed clear improvements in attitude and productivity from local workers who had been working alongside Seasonal Agricultural Worker Scheme (SAWS) workers and suggested that the scheme (predecessor to the SWS) raised the bar for expected practice in the workplace. This higher productivity is likely to be the result of the time-limited nature of the scheme, and what we understand to be the aims of the workers – to earn as much as possible in a short period of time before returning home.
Another survey reported higher levels of underpayment, with 19% saying they were paid less than promised; women reporting higher rates of underpayment than men (27% and 16% respectively); and 2% of all men and women reported not being paid at all. The respondents of the 2022 Defra Seasonal Workers survey also said they had received adequate information on their pay and potential reductions to pay (91% and 81% respectively) before coming to the UK. Returning Seasonal Workers we spoke to said that the recruitment presentation accurately represented pay and deductions. The data indicates that while most workers had a good experience, some workers did have problems receiving the pay they had expected. Some farms said they avoided mixing certain nationalities or chose to only hire from certain countries to avoid tensions.
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